A Fateful Reading
by Love Alchemist
Summary: Shounen ai to light yaoi. Ryou and Malik celebrates their third anniversary, with a twist, and Ryou does a reading in Tarot using Magic&Wizards (Duel Monsters) cards.


Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! does not belong to me, however much I would want to have Malik and Ryou in my closet.  
  
Pairings: RyouxMalik (Goddamn yes, the fluffball's the seme! XD)  
  
Warnings; Shounen-ai bordering in yaoi for mentions of sex, lime, an established relationship, mentions of the occult and lot of other things that you don't need to be warned of.  
  
Author's notes: Firstly; I don't know jack about Tarot, or the meanings of the cards in Tarot, and I'm waay to lazy (and I get confused when I look up some of the rules for Tarot)  
to check, so anything mentioned here is not the truth and I know it, k?

Secondly; this is really the first(written first, should be read first) and last (placed last) part of a planned/begun series... hopefully the rest will come.  
  
A Fateful Reading  
  
Sunlight streamed into the room from the window, spilling onto the floor and drenching the back of the figure sitting at the low table in warm light. White hair slipped over one shoulder as the young man leaned forward over the tabletop, carefully laying the cards down with their backsides up.  
  
Leaning back with his arms crossed and warm brown eyes narrowed, he contemplated the cards lying there, as if they could tell him some large secret by just being. Glancing up quickly to the digital clock on his bedside dresser he absently noted the time.  
  
11.30.

Half an hour until his guest would be here. More than enough time to do this reading.  
  
Still silent, Ryou leaned forward again, this time flipping over the cards one by one in a set pattern, raising a snowy eyebrow at some, chuckling at others as they were revealed.  
  
"That was unexpected." Ryou mumbled, the tip of his index finger resting at the card representing himself.

The Change of Heart. One of his favorites after all. With a shrug he redirected his attention to the other cards, looking over each one carefully and where it was placed.  
  
Some would probably think it strange and downright impossible to try to do a reading in Tarot by using Magic & Wizards cards, but Ryou saw it as a challenge. There were so many possible cards and meanings if you had a decent selection of cards to use.  
  
"Bakura?" the call from the other side of the apartment jerked Ryou out of his concentration and he looked up, blinking rapidly then shook his head. Already?  
  
"Yes, in my room Malik-kun." Ryou said, raising his voice to be heard over to where Malik stood in the entrance hall.  
  
A few minutes and steps later, the Egyptian boy walked into Ryou's room, raising an eyebrow at the so dark blue they were almost black draperies hanging at the window, the black candles scattered around the room on various flat surfaces, a pentagram hanging from a hook in the wall by his bed and various other things that could only belong in the category of "occult or supernatural" inbetween more "normal" knick-knacks and pictures.  
  
"I knew you had a thing for the occult Bakura, but I honestly can't say I thought your room would look like this. I imagined something more... light." Malik said with a shake of his head as he sat down opposite of Ryou at the low table.  
  
The white haired boy smiled at his friend and shrugged, turning his eyes back to his cards.

"Say, Bakura? What are you doing?" Malik hadn't been able to keep quiet for long, and now he was leaning forward curiously to look at the cards a little closer.  
  
"Doing a Tarot reading." Ryou smiled and tilted his head, having sat up straight so Malik could have a closer look.  
  
"Using Magic & Wizards? Whatever suits your fancy I guess. What is this for?" One bronzed finger poked at the card in the center of the table, tracing the outline of the half angel-  
half demon creature.  
  
"It's for me. Somehow I almost always get the Change of Heart to represent me. The odds for that..." Ryou shook his head as he trailed off, following Malik's gaze to another card.  
  
For Ryou, who knew what that card represented and which place it had in the reading, it was quite amusing that Malik had chosen just this card to fix his attention on.

"And this one?"  
  
"This? It's for relationships, or if you ask such a question and decide which cards represent which people, a romantic interest." Ryou said with a shy grin, tracing the painted sun and cloud on the card, finally picking it up and holding it between index- and long finger.  
  
Malik grinned at the boy on the other side of the table, leaning his elbows on the wood and resting his chin on his laced fingers. With a teasing smirk he asked;

"What does it mean? And which did it stand for in this reading? A relationship or a romantic interest?"  
  
The faint blush that spread over Ryou's pale cheeks and the bridge of his nose had Malik chuckling, but he fell silent so the shyer boy wouldn't feel like he was made fun of.

"It stands for good prospects, a shining future, and burning passion. But it could also be standing for a romance that will end quickly, one which will burn itself out easily."  
  
Ducking his head so his bangs hid his dark eyes he smiled slightly.

"In this reading I had it stand for a romantic interest. A specific someone." Ryou was mumbling at the end, glancing up at the blond through his eyelashes.  
  
Malik smiled, being careful to keep it gentle, Ryou could be so goddamn shy sometimes! Not that it was bad, per se, because it added to his charm and seeming innocence, but it could come in the way of a conversation. Especially if the conversation were with someone like Malik.  
  
But he couldn't deny it, he wanted to know who Ryou thought the card represented. Who held the pretty boy's attention? Malik's tongue darted out to quickly wet his lips and he frowned slightly.

He didn't like it that someone had Ryou's attention in such a way. What if he was hurt? What if that someone took advantage of him? Yes, he was jealous, thank you very much.  
  
Behind his curtain of hair, Ryou smiled slightly as he studied the dark-skinned boy. Malik was so cute when he thought. Well, okay, he was cute (more like beautiful) all the time, but yeah.

He had this penchant for frowning ever so slightly and had this look that said "how dare this be of trouble to me" when he thought, which Ryou thought was just adorable. Which he wasn't going to tell the Egyptian. Malik would no doubt not relish being thought of as "adorable". Beautiful and stunning, yes, but adorable? Hardly.  
  
With a shrug Malik focused on Ryou again, lavender eyes glittering in the light.

"So, who is it?" Ryou wanted to laugh at the sharp tone, the one he'd noticed always appeared when Malik thought something was threatening those he cared about; Rishid, Isis... and apparently himself.  
  
That made a hard knot that had been there since he'd decided he was going to do this reading with a specific question and person in mind melt into a ball of warm, buttery sunlight which then overflowed from his stomach and into the rest of his body. It was fine.  
  
Leaning forward over the table, his smile bordering on a smirk, which had some of it's effect taken off by the faint blush gracing his cheeks, but no matter.  
  
Ryou was now leaning so far that his lips were just shy of Malik's, the other boy looking wide eyed with surprise at the closeness and a suspicion forming in his unusual eyes.

"You." Ryou mumbled against soft lips, leaning a fraction further and gently pressing his lips against Malik's.  
  
When Malik didn't jerk back, or push Ryou away, the white haired boy decided he could press onwards and opened his own mouth, tracing the soft lips under his with a wet tongue. They parted without protest, and Ryou mapped out this until-now unknown territory before, reluctantly, relinquishing it when air became an issue.  
  
Laying down the Ray and Temperature card onto the table again Ryou stood up and walked around it so he was standing beside Malik. With a grin he dragged the other boy up so he was standing, immediately worming a hand under Malik's shirt so he could touch the dark skin underneath.  
  
Malik smirked and leaned forward, trailing wet kisses up along the pale column of Ryou's throat until he came to his mouth. Teasingly dropping ghostly kisses that almost connected Malik's arms wound around Ryou's back and under his t-shirt.  
  
The white haired boy growled when none of the almost-kisses turned into a real one and lunged forward, sealing his lips to Malik's.  
  
Gently pushing Malik backwards while they were kissing until the back of the biege cargo pants hit the side of the bed, Ryou smiled into the kiss and gave a last gentle push,  
following Malik down.  
  
Glaring at the snowy haired boy now straddling him the blond pouted.

"A warning would be nice." he muttered petulantly before grinning up at Ryou and grabbing his shirt.

"Off with this, we're both wearing too many clothes."  
  
And since Ryou agreed wholeheartedly, nothing more was said.

Later:  
The light was more golden now, spreading around the room and lighting up surfaces and furniture as it went, and in turn being absorbed by the darker fabrics of the bedspread and draperies.  
  
White hair spilled over dark skin, the difference so startling, and yet the colors seemed to melt into each other, belonging. Ryou sighed contentedly, still on top of, and inside,  
his lover.

"Malik, should I move?" he mumbled, trying to do so and realized he couldn't.  
  
The reason was clear as Malik's legs were twined around his own pale ones, not letting him move from his position.

"Shut up." Malik garbled at him, still in the afterglow.  
  
"You always say that." Ryou said with a chuckle, enjoying the warmth inside his limbs and too tired in the good way of orgasms to try to put up a fight.

"And you always ask if you should move," Malik snorted good-naturedly, tightening his arms around Ryou's back.

"You're light, I don't mind."  
  
Malik frowned and cocked his head so he could look down on his lover.

"In fact, I think you should eat more. You're too thin."  
  
"That's what you think, Malik. I'm just fine." Ryou protested and then smiled.

"So, how was it? It was a good idea I admit."  
  
Malik chuckled and shook his head, sending golden strands flying around his face to be lighted up like small tongues of flames when hit by the sunlight and to be just as quickly doused off when they left the light's range.  
  
"I told you it would be fun, Ryou. It easily made up for how long I had to work on you to agree." Malik tilted his head to the side and looked up at the whitewashed ceiling thoughtfully.  
  
"The reading you did... did you do one the first time you asked me out too?" Malik hadn't known what Ryou would be doing when he came in, and even if he'd seen Ryou lay Tarot more than a few times during these three years they had been together, he felt there was something special with this one.  
  
Ryou, who had been looking up at Malik while they talked, now hid his face against the dark,  
muscled chest beneath him.

"Yes. Yes, I did. I did three readings then, all three times asking if I should ask you out.  
And since I got the Ray and Temperature card all three times, I thought it was better to just go for it and get rejected than sit and sulk in my room."  
  
The Egyptian boy was grinning when Ryou finished, petting his boyfriend's fluff of incredibly soft hair.

"Good that you did. The summer was even more fun than usual because of that. And besides,  
since it has gone three years now, I think we're past the "easily burning itself out" part of that card's meaning. My guess is that that card, relationship-wise, will only stand for our shining future and burning passion." Malik's teasing trailed off, lavender eyes narrowing.

"Ryou... that card... when you use the M&W cards to do a reading, am I always that card?"  
  
A muted giggle (which would be vehemently denied later) sounded from the hidden face, puffs of warm air snaking over the dark skin.

"Yes. When I was looking through my cards the first time I was going to do a reading using them, I found that one and it just stuck. You are my flaming sun Malik."  
  
Blushing brightly (which would also be vehemently denied later) Malik looked to the side out at the rest of the room with a violent snort. But the petting of the white strands never stopped.  
  
"Happy third anniversary Ryou." Malik said with a smile, turning his face back again to look down at his beautiful pale boy.

Ryou looked up and met Malik's dark, glittering lavender eyes with his own shining, dark brown orbs and smiled brightly.  
  
"Happy third anniversary Malik."


End file.
